Mary – Jesus’ First Disciple
TCF Sermon
December 7, 2008
Mark Lowry, the Christian singer and comedian who wrote the song we just heard, observed that the silence of Jesus’ mother Mary at the cross always amazed him. If he were being crucified in the middle of town, Lowry says, his mother would have "Pitched a fit", but Mary never said a word. Lowry wondered if maybe what made the difference for her was remembering back to that 1st Christmas. Remembering touching his little hands and feet and counting his fingers and toes. Lowry says: "I wonder if she realized then that those were the same fingers that had scooped out the oceans and formed the seas. Mary probably counted those little toes - I wonder if she realized that those were the same feet that had walked on streets of gold and had been worshipped by angels. Those little lips were the same lips that had spoken the world into existence. When Mary kissed her little baby, she wasn’t just kissing another baby - she was kissing the face of God. 33 years later she’s standing on a hillside watching blood pour from His veins, from the side of her own son... and she didn’t open her mouth. What a great testimony to the fact that He wasn’t just a great prophet. He wasn’t just a great preacher. He wasn’t just a great teacher. He was the virgin born son of God. He was our Savior. And... He didn’t just die for us, He died for His own mother. The baby boy she had delivered on that 1st Christmas was now on a cross delivering her.
Think about this. In a very real way, Mary was Jesus’ first disciple. She was the first to respond to His call on her life. The first to say yes to His plan for her.
Remember the question we hear related so often to scandal? We wonder how high up a scandal goes, and people begin asking this: What did so and so know, and when did he know it?
Mark Lowry’s questions in these thoughts and this song, ask a similar question worth thinking about this morning. What did Mary know, and when did she know it? We can learn some of what she knew from this passage.
Luke 1:26-56 (NIV) 26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her. 39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!
43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" 46 And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers." 56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
Christmastime is about the only time we ever hear much about Mary. Think about it. There are many other figures in the Old and New Testament we hear about much more often. When we think of biblical heroes, we would certainly think about Paul, and we’d think about Peter, and we’d think about most of the apostles.
We’d think of many Old Testament figures, like Moses, and Noah,
and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Ruth and Esther, or some of the great prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah.
Why is that? Why can we think about these people mentioned in scripture, find myriads of books or articles about them, but not Mary.
I think it’s because as protestants, we have a fear of going overboard in honoring Mary the mother of Jesus. We know that many Roman Catholics venerate Mary to the point of worship. We recognize that only God is worthy of our worship, and so, in reaction to that fear, we tend to forget or minimize Mary.
The subject of Mary is something I’ve thought a lot about. At Christmas, we hear about her in connection with the birth of Jesus, but never really examine much of what the Word has to say about her.
This is clearly a reaction to the Catholic understanding of Mary - an example of how when something is taken to an extreme, our response is often to go to the opposite extreme. We over-react in fear, rather than bring balance to an understanding of who Mary is, why she’s important, and what we as believers can learn from her.
So we purge our sermons, our literature, of significant reference to her. A quick search on Christian book.com showed some books about Mary, and most of those related to Christmas, but hundreds of titles related to Ruth, Esther, or Deborah.
I’ve heard about Mary all my life growing up. Let me recount to you my Mary credentials.
My dad’s mom, Irish Catholic to the core, was named Mary. In Batavia, NY, as a young boy, I attended St. Mary’s grade school. When I finished 8th grade, I went to Notre Dame high school. Do you know what Notre Dame means? It’s French for Our Lady.
I grew up, was confirmed, received my first communion, and was an altar boy at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Despite this, being raised Catholic, I learned that I didn’t really know much about the Catholic understanding of Mary, ironically, until I came to ORU.
I remember when I was a freshman, Chuck Farah came and spoke in a brother-sister wing devotion. It happened to be on December 8, which is tomorrow by the way. In the Catholic Church, December 8 is the feast of the immaculate conception. I’d always thought it was simply a celebration of the virgin conception of Jesus – the simple fact attested to in scripture that Jesus was born of a virgin named Mary. That’s something all Christians affirm. What I didn’t know until then, is that the Catholic understanding of the immaculate conception is much more than this.
I didn’t know until then that Catholics mark this day as a celebration of Mary’s immaculate conception - and her supposedly sinless life. Now. there’s nothing in scripture to indicate Mary was sinless. The only sinless human being ever was Jesus.
In researching this message, I found most of the information about Mary falls into two categories:
First, we see the Catholic idolization of Mary. There’s a lot of information about supposed personal, supernatural appearances, as well as about the immaculate conception, Mary’s supposedly sinless life, the kinds of things we’ve already examined.
There’s also a lot of extrabiblical information about Mary’s life that’s taken for granted by some. What’s more, there is some questionable at best, some heretical at worst, interpretations of scripture, which adds to the cult-like adoration of Mary.
The other category of most of the information about Mary that’s available in books, on the internet, etc., is information refuting the Catholic understanding of Mary, some of which goes to the opposite extreme, and probably reflects much of the fear Protestants have in studying this important biblical figure.
So, even recognizing that there is serious error in that understanding of Mary, we can lose a lot of what God can say to us by neglecting to look at Mary and what scripture tells us of her. A close look at the life of Mary, without even delving into speculation about anything that’s not clearly spoken of in scripture, reveals a woman of faith, humility, and obedience.
That brings us back to where we were - thinking about things. Here in Mary, we have one of the most central figures of human history. We have a young woman, probably in her mid-teens, on whose response the whole story of redemption depends, in some ways we cannot understand.
What if Mary had responded differently? What if, after she was told by the angel Gabriel that she would bear a son named Jesus, she hadn’t responded as we just read Luke 1:38?
Luke 1:38 (NIV) 38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."
Think about some of the questions that Mark Lowry thought about, and made memorable in his song Mary Did You Know. Did Mary have a clue about the miracles her baby boy, her son, would perform? Walk on water? Calm storms? Heal the blind, the deaf and the lame?
At first, probably not. Her first clue about the consequences of her decision, beyond what Gabriel told her and what she knew herself from scripture about the Messiah, was in Luke 2.
Luke 2:33-35 (NIV) 33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against,
35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."
In Luke chapter 2 we see twice that Mary pondered things in her heart, treasured things...she thought about the significance of the things that God was doing and how she was involved. This time of year, I often, prompted by a few songs, begin to think about certain questions.
In Mark Lowry’s song, he asks Mary did you know?
- your baby boy would someday walk on water
- save our sons and daughters
- come to make you new
- child you’ve delivered will soon deliver you
- he walked with angels
- when you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God
- Lord of all creation
- Heaven’s perfect plan
- sleeping child you’re holding is the great I AM
I wonder a lot of other things as I read about the account of the angel Gabriel coming to Mary to announce Jesus birth, as I read about the shepherds finding the stable where baby Jesus was, as I read about the prophetic words of Simeon to Mary, as I read the only story we have of Jesus as a young boy.
As we look at these things, we see quickly that we can learn from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Consider our opening passage of scripture from Luke 1. It tells us that Mary was afraid and greatly troubled. It was common in angelic visitations for the angels to say "Fear Not." I think such an appearance might scare you, too. If an angel appeared in all his glory – that’s not something you see everyday.
Yet this verse tells us that Mary was troubled at what the angel said. The Message paraphrase renders it:
"She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that."
After all, the angel called her
1. highly favored
2. he said the Lord is with you
3. blessed are you among women
Now, that doesn’t sound too bad - but she was perhaps somewhat skeptical. Then Gabriel told her:
1. you’ll give birth to a son
2. he will be great
3. he will be son of the highest
4. he will have the throne of David
5. reign over the house of Jacob
6. his kingdom will never end
Yet, look at Mary’s response after all these prophetic words about the son she would bear. Her initial response was about something far more practical and mundane: "But I’m a virgin!"
So the angel gave Mary as practical an answer about this miraculous event as he could. He told Mary that this child will be conceived by the Holy Spirit. He told her that nothing is impossible for God. After that, we see one of the greatest statements of faith and obedience in the entire Word of God. Her second response, after the angel’s explanation, which might have begged more questions still, was quite different. The initial concern or fear or skepticism, is not evident in her response, even if it might have been on her mind.
She said: "I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said."
The KJV says : “may it be unto me according to your word.”
This reveals a woman of conviction. Conviction that the scriptures were true. Conviction that enabled her to make such a statement of faith, despite not knowing all that obedience would mean
Phillip Yancey wrote:
"Often a work of God comes with two edges, great joy and great pain, and in that matter of fact response, Mary embraced both. She was the first person to accept Jesus on his own terms, regardless of the personal cost."
Make no mistake about it. Despite the angel’s words about Mary being favored, highly honored, and blessed among women - there was a cost for Mary.
The first cost was her reputation. We don’t have a record of the reaction that everyone who heard her incredible story had, but we can certainly extrapolate from what we do read, as well as our understanding of human nature.
First, there was her betrothed, Joseph. He at first didn’t believe her – and can we be honest? That’s an understandable reaction, isn’t it? The gospel of Matthew says he was going to divorce her quietly, until a dream confirmed what Mary had told him.
But what about her parents, Joseph’s parents, her friends, and others in the community? The news of Mary’s pregnancy couldn’t have been too well received. After all, it was a close knit small town, where probably everybody knew everybody else’s business. And now this young girl, engaged to be married, turns up pregnant?
Betrothal was a much more serious commitment then – the law considered a betrothed woman who became pregnant as an adulteress, worthy of stoning. Joseph could have legally required that.
The angel never promised Mary that Joseph, or anyone else, would understand. It would have been nice if Gabriel had said to her, "if anyone doubts you, I’ll take care of their doubts…just send them to me.”
Did Mary’s statement of faith: "May it happen just as you have said," encompass all these things? She couldn’t have possibly known all that would transpire.
Perhaps, though, we see that her statement of faith did embrace the unknown, because of what she said just prior to that: "I am the Lord’s servant."
The word there is a form of the Greek doulos, which means slave. Jim Garrett points out in his book The Doulos Principle that this is the word used 125 times in the New Testament for describing the relationship between God and the believer.
Mary’s attitude was one we can and should emulate. It’s the attitude of a doulos.
One commentator cited in Jim’s book said,
"Hence, we have a service which is not a matter of choice for the one who renders it, which he has to perform whether he likes it or not, because he is subject, as a slave to an alien will, to the will of his owner."
I think it’s important to remember, in light of Mary’s clear indication of, acceptance of, her servanthood, some of the implications of the doulos principle. For one, the doulos principle levels all of us. Mary was the highly favored mother of Jesus, blessed among women, yet she was subject to the same sufferings, trials, pain as all of us. Her favor in being chosen as the instrument through which God would bring into the world the Word made flesh resulted in pain she wouldn’t likely have freely chosen on her own, except from it being a part of God’s plan for her life.
Secondly, the doulos principle means that the choice of life circumstances, and the fruit of our labor, is not determined by us, but by our master. Now, I don’t think Mary was a masochist. I can’t believe she would have chosen to subject herself to the shame of people’s misunderstanding about her pregnancy. I think we can assume that at least there were some people who counted the months from her wedding to the baby’s birth, and went “hmmm.”
I also can’t believe she wanted, as Jesus grew, a son that some people thought was crazy. She certainly didn’t want to watch her son die on the cross.
Third, as a slave, I have only those rights granted to me by the master.
C.S. Lewis has written about God’s plan, "The whole thing narrows and narrows, until at last it comes down to a little point, small as the point of a spear - a Jewish girl at her prayers."
Yancey noted: "Today as I read the accounts of Jesus’ birth I tremble to think of the fate of the world resting on the response of two rural teenagers. How many times did Mary review the angel’s words as she felt the Son of God kicking the walls of her uterus? How many times did Joseph second-guess his own encounter with an angel – (was it) just a dream? - as he endured the hot shame of living among villagers who could plainly see the changing shape of his fiancee?"
We know nothing of Jesus’ grandparents. What must they have felt? Did they, like many grandparents today, graciously offer to take the child under their own roof?
Malcolm Muggeridge observed that in our day, with abortion clinics offering convenient ways to correct "mistakes" that might disgrace a family name,
"It is, in point of fact, extremely improbable under existing conditions, that Jesus would have been permitted to be born at all. Mary’s pregnancy, in poor circumstances, and with the father unknown, would have been an obvious case for an abortion; and her talk of having conceived as a result of the intervention of the Holy Ghost would have pointed to the need for psychiatric treatment, and made the case for terminating her pregnancy even stronger. Thus our generation, needing a Savior more, perhaps, that any that has ever existed, would be too humane to allow one to be born."
Carol Everett described this as the ultimate crisis pregnancy.
Our Christmas is cleaned up significantly for modern consumption. It’s usually devoid of any hint of the scandal Mary and Joseph must have felt - to the point that we forget the kind of faith it must have taken to have this attitude expressed by Mary:
"I am the Lord’s servant (slave)," Mary said.
Was she fully cognizant of all this? All the things we now know that she went through? Certainly not completely - but her heart’s attitude carried her through. Mary had that attitude – and it was reflected by her initial response to the angel’s news. It’s a life response we can attain to. “I am the Lord’s servant.”
Think about the difference between Mary and her relative Elizabeth. Both had a birth foretold by an angelic visit. Yet, everyone was excited about Elizabeth’s miracle, while Mary had to hide it
We don’t always think of Mary when we think of biblical examples of faith and perseverance, yet here she is. Why did Mary go see Elizabeth so quickly? Did she want to confirm what the angel had told her to strengthen her faith? Did she want to go to rejoice with Elizabeth? Did she want to get away from Nazareth, where her pregnancy was harder to explain? Did she know she’d be able to talk of this experience more freely with Elizabeth? Elizabeth quickly confirmed her experience. This had to strengthen Mary’s faith more.
Elizabeth greeted her with words similar to what Gabriel told her. Elizabeth called her "the mother of my Lord." She said, "blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord said to her will be accomplished."
Mary’s response was fuller than after the angel had visited her. We call this passage, beginning with vs 46, the Magnificat which means "glorifies."
Her response was to glorify God. After the stories related to the angel’s announcement, and then the birth of Jesus, we don’t see much more of Mary in scripture. We see her only a few more times recorded in scripture.
We see her mentioned, but not by name, just as the mother of Jesus, when she and Joseph inspired the Home Alone movies by leaving Jesus behind at the temple when He was 12.
She was present at the marriage in Cana, where Jesus performed His first miracle at the beginning of his public ministry.
Then we see her mentioned when she tried to speak with Jesus, along with others of the family, when He was preaching to a crowd in a country place (Matt. 12:46; Mark 3:31; Luke 8:19).
We next read about her there at the crucifixion, where she was commended by her dying Son to care of the apostle John (John 19:26).
Finally, she is also mentioned as one among those praying in the upper room at Jerusalem after Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:14).
But we learn enough about her from these early accounts to form some clear impressions, and to learn some things. She was clearly a person of great faith and great conviction. She trusted God, even when she could not have possibly understood all that was going on.
You have to wonder how many times she hung onto, thought about, the words of the angel, as Jesus grew into a man, and then carried out His redemptive plan for humanity.
She was a woman of obedience. She was a servant, a slave, of the Lord. She was a woman who recognized God’s blessing in her life – God’s favor. She was also pretty normal.
Mary was young, poor, female — all characteristics that, to the people of her day, would make her seem unusable by God for any major task. But God chose Mary for one of the most important acts of obedience he has ever demanded of anyone. You may feel that your ability, experience, or education makes you an unlikely candidate for God’s service. Don’t limit God’s choices. He can use you if you trust him.
Life Application Bible
In her response to Elizabeth, the Magnificat, Mary rejoiced in God Her Savior. She had a relationship with God, one of service, faith and obedience. She willingly submitted to God’s plan. She was the first disciple of Jesus, a learner like us, and a Godly example.
As we see manger scenes this Christmas, as we sing the many wonderful Christmas carols and songs that help us think about the amazing truths of the incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, let’s also think about Mary, a regular person just like us - who was asked to fill a critical role in God’s plan of redemption.
Let’s think about her willing spirit, her obedient heart, and her faith – all things we can aspire to as modern day disciples of Jesus, just like the mother of Jesus - His very first disciple.
Pray
